Three of the ideas of biology are the gene theory, the theory of
evolution by natural selection, and the proposal that the cell is the
fundamental unit of all life. When considering the question of what is
life these ideas come together, because the special way cells reproduce
provides the conditions by which natural selection takes place allowing
living organisms to evolve. A fourth idea is that the organization of
chemistry within the cell provides explanations for life’s phenomena. A
new idea is the nature of biological self organization on which living
cells and organisms process information and acquire specific forms.

Paul Nurse is a geneticist and cell biologist who has worked with the
fission yeast to understand how the eukaryotic cell cycle is controlled
and how cell shape and cell dimensions are determined. His major work
has been on the cyclin dependent protein kinases and how they regulate
onset of s-phase and mitosis and ensure there is only one s-phase each
cell cycle. He is President of rockefeller university, New York and
previously served as Chief Executive of Cancer Research UK. He shared
the 2001 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine and has received the
Albert lasker Award and the royal society’s Copley Medal.